18 ways to a more resilient child

Resilience. Like mindfulness, it’s become somewhat of a parenting ‘buzzword’. But don’t hold that against it – resilience, like mindfulness, is worth its weight in gold.

What does resilience really mean?

Parenting and resilience expert Maggie Dent (a fellow ‘boy champion’) explains resilience like this:

“Resilience refers to one’s ability to successfully manage life and to successfully adapt to change and stressful events in healthy and constructive ways. In simple terms, it is our survivability and ‘bounce-back-ability’ to life experiences and that means both the really advantageous ones as well as the really challenging, traumatic ones.”

Why is resilience so important?

Because (as much as sometimes we’d love to) we can’t keep our kids wrapped up in cotton wool and protect them from every stressor, problem or difficulty. Life is a roadtrip. Sometimes the road is smooth but occasionally, things are going to get bumpy. It’s how you navigate the bumps that matters. Knowing how to problem-solve and cope when things get tough is a life skill every child – and adult – needs.

What can you do?

When it comes to children and resilience, parents have a big part to play. But before you freak out, here’s the good news. You only really need to do two things:

  1. listen to your child
  2. care for your child.

Easy right?

However, a few practical tips never go amiss, so check out these 18 resilience tips from Aussie psychologist Dr Justin Coulson and reap the very real benefits of the latest parenting ‘buzzword’.

 

Brought to you by Brighton Grammar School

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